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VIDEO: Let there be… LED

by Sean Michael | Sep 21, 2010 | Airstream, Product Review, RV Products, Video | 5 comments

To upgrade, the philosopher known as Beyonce teaches us, is to live.

That’s the cool thing about owning an Airstream or any other RV — like a brick-and-mortar home, it’s a constantly evolving platform. With the simple flick of a plastic card, you can express your ideas and/or wreck your bank account.

Some upgrades are cosmetic. For example, our bathroom revamp (See, generally, Old School, New Faucet) was largely a matter of appearance (although the new faucet handles are a vast functional improvement over the originals).

But with LED lighting, we have an upgrade that’s almost purely functional. Sure, there are some cosmetic differences (especially if you opt for the blue shade of light). But there are several advantages to LED lighting. LED lights really are better than their traditional counterparts in substantive ways. The life span of these LED lights is 5000 hours and they use 12% the power of the halogen that we replaced.

Unfortunately, the bulbs cost a lot more than old fashioned incandescent bulbs. But if we are to believe the hype, they use much less power while also lasting longer. So in the long run, especially if you are keeping your camper for the long term, the finances are a wash. In the short term, you take a bath.

The most immediately obvious benefit of LED lighting is temperature. Our old Airstream lights burned pretty hot. You wouldn’t want to touch one. You might want to fry a quail egg on one. In fact, as you’ll see in the video, our exterior porch light burned so hot that it melted its plastic light cover. Yikes!

So we made the big switch to LED lighting, at least for the lights we use on a daily basis. We changed five lights to LED. Those so inclined can go further, changing exterior brake and running lights to the fancy stuff.

All told, the five new lights cost us about $50, approximately $10 a pop. I’m sure that if you shop around, you MAY be able to find ’em cheaper. Maybe.

LED lights are available in different color temperatures. In this case, I’m not referencing ACTUAL temperature, but rather the color tone of the light itself.

Our exterior Airstream lights are the “cool” variety of LED — they emanate light of a blueish / white color.

For our interior lights we opted for a “warmer” color temperature. These reading lights emanate a more traditional orange / yellow color of light.

We’ve been using our LED lights for several weeks. I have especially appreciated the interior lights. Using less electricity is always beneficial, and the cooler operating temperatures are an added bonus.

Is this upgrade WORTH THE MONEY? Hmmm, tough to say. It’s an individual choice. I don’t like paying $12 for a dinky little lightbulb, even one that looks like a Tron movie prop. But I must admit, we are very pleased with the lights. We do a lot of boondocking (dry camping) and we really appreciate the power savings. So it was worth it for us.

5 Comments

  1. Scott S
    Scott S on September 22, 2010 at 6:33 pm

    These look like a great idea for dry camping. If you add them to the bottom of the rig then you know you’ve gone too far;)

  2. N3qdz
    N3qdz on September 24, 2010 at 7:30 am

    Once again, Yet the trusty tried and true “moon” comes through again!!!! I like the “unplugged” versions of the “moon”. I am waiting for the color to be right. I find the color temp wrong and the coverage not to be wide or long as long or as wide and the standard bulb. I know they use way less energy than their incandescent counterpoints but, for me they are not fully dialed in for my taste.
    I see the dry campers point of view in the view they will keep the batteries power longer. I’m not as adventurous as the two of you so for me, I will keep the the standard till they dial the color temp in.
    Once again another great job! Thanks

  3. Sean Michael
    Sean Michael on October 7, 2010 at 6:07 pm

    Thanks guys… The LED lights are really nice. They really are a boondocker’s dream.

    I updated the article with more specifics — basically ONE LED bulb uses only 12% of the electricity of an old fashioned bulb. We changed three interior lights to LED, so ALL THREE COMBINED only use one-third of the electricity of a single old bulb. That’s impressive.

    I’d imagine the power savings are even greater in the exterior “porch” bulb, since it is a larger unit.

    With regard to color temperature, you can choose warm or cool. Our interior lights are the “warm” and the resulting color is very close to the traditional style.

    Our exterior lights are the blueish color — it actually looks pretty slick for this purpose. And no, we won’t be putting any beneath the rig! 😀

  4. Dan
    Dan on October 9, 2010 at 2:03 pm

    I would have to say that I was pretty proud to see our lights on your video. You did a good job of explaining!!!!
    Dan

  5. Wiggly
    Wiggly on October 29, 2010 at 10:59 pm

    Hey Sean,
    We’ve enjoyed our first season in our 15′ Taylor Coach and we upgraded 4 lights to LED right from the start. The LEDs were always the first lights we turned on and when we boondocked (which we did about 5 times) they were the main lights we were using. I love the fact that they don’t overheat – even up here in chilly Canada, summer camping is generally hot. Since we don’t have AC, having lights that don’t heat up is great! I’m happy with my choice of the “cool” lights because they give off a more natural, outdoor feeling to the light compared to the more yellow “warm” lights which simulate more traditional indoor lighting. I’ll probably pick up a few more for next season – fortunately I only have about 6 more lights to upgrade because here in Canada, I’m paying $17 a pop. At $11.95, you did well my friend!
    Wiggly!

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